No victimisation: One hundred postal workers at Burslem, Staffordshire, are now into their fourth week of strike action against the victimisation of twelve workers who have been unfairly suspended since September on trumped up charges... By Andy Bentley, Stoke Socialist Party

PRIMARY CARE Trust (PCT) bosses in one of London's poorest boroughs have given a contract to a multinational private conglomerate, Atos Origin, to run St Paul's Way Medical Centre, at present managed by the PCT... By a community nurse

UNDER THE gleeful heading "Private sector role in public services explodes," the Financial Times reported that the private sector's supply of public services "now makes a bigger contribution to the economy than pharmaceut...

Last year ended to the roar of the assassin's bullet and bomb, cutting down Benazir Bhutto, the fourth such civilian leader or president to be murdered since the foundation of Pakistan 60 years ago... By Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary

In the 1970s and 1980s, Tony Benn earned the scorn and hatred of the rich, the capitalist media and their right-wing friends within the labour movement because he was seen as a champion of socialist ideas, writes Peter Taaffe...

The national march and rally organised by the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) in Stoke on Saturday 19 January gives postal workers and supporters an opportunity to show their solidarity with victimised Burslem postal work... By Andy Bentley Stoke Socialist Party

Legal - illegal; Life after Twizzlers; Student fees VOSPER THORNEYCROFT, one of the world's biggest warship manufacturers, is set to be given the contract to run education services in Waltham Forest, east London...

IN NOVEMBER and December last year Bolivia was on the brink of civil war. The right-wing opposition of the gas-rich eastern provinces had declared autonomy... By Karl Debbaut, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)

Public and Commercial Services union members, in the Department for Work and Pensions and in Revenue and Customs, are gearing up for possible strike action, writes Mark Baker, civil service union PCS national executive (NEC), (in personal capacity).

THE SNP-led Scottish government has published a consultation paper setting out its 'alternative' to the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnership (PPP) schemes in Scotland... By Brian Smith, Glasgow Unison social work services secretary, personal capacity

THIS APRIL marks the 40th anniversary of the enactment of the 1967 Abortion Act. That law change introducing safe, legal abortion in Britain has saved lives and given women more control over their lives... By Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

A concentrated effort to prevent left militant fighters from occupying influential positions within the labour movement - usually by bureaucratic means - has traditionally been used by the right wing of the trade unions...

While teachers' workload remains as high as ever, with an average 50-hour week in primary schools, we are now being asked to take wage cuts for a further three years from September 2008.... By Linda Taaffe

Bristol: The Cadbury bosses have behaved utterly predictably in deciding at the end of a 90-day "consultation" process, to press ahead with the complete closure of their historic Keynsham site near Bristol... By Robin Clapp

THE EXTREME volatility in the world's stock markets has not yet led to London city slickers jumping off skyscrapers. But growing fears about the underlying health of the economy prompted one commentator to scream about a global 'pandemic'...

Plans 'unfit for purpose'?:
'FIT FOR the future,' the government's plan for NHS services in North-east London, would be better entitled 'Unfit for purpose'! It will mean downsizing King George Hospital and possibly Whipps Cross Hospital, closing their Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments and moving them to a 'super-hospital' many miles away - the PFI-built Queens Hospital in Romford.

Tales from the council chamber: "CALLING THE Socialist Party motions 'far-left extremism' shows that New Labour can't answer what you're saying." That was the response of one of the 50 or so parents and council tenants who watched Lewisham council's ... By Clive Heemskerk

Last November over 125 students walked out of Foster High School in the US, in response to a call from Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) to protest against the war in Iraq and military recruiters in schools... By Bryan Watson, Socialist Alternative

Last December I was invited to speak to some college politics students. In my introduction I made points on socialism, Marxism, what the Socialist Party... By Frankie Langeland, Cambridge Socialist Party

Students can't go anywhere in February and March without being bombarded by people handing out leaflets, with 'Vote for Robbo' or 'Sharon for Pres' on their t-shirts, not to mention the odd person dressed as a furry anim...

Rise of evil?: Towards the end of World War One Germany was a country in ruin. Over one and a half million Germans had died. An economic blockade meant conditions for workers in the cities were deteriorating...

Yorkshire: "It took just six mobile phones and two hours to get 21,000 prison officers on strike!" National executive member Joe Simpson's account of how the Prison Officers Association (POA) organised their 'illegal' strike had an...

EDUCATION IS under attack. 30,000 children could lose their rural schools in the first stage of the government's new closure plans. Socialist Party members Jim Reekie and Jake Moore report on the angry response in Shropshire to these threats....

IT SEEMS on the cusp of being real. For the first time in the US, an African American - Barack Obama of the Democratic Party - has a serious chance of being... By Teddy Shibabaw, Socialist Alternative (CWI, USA)